CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The organizing committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) selected “DiamondTouch: A Multi-User Touch Technology” for Lasting Impact Award. Author/inventors Paul Dietz, currently Assistant Director of Research of the Applied Sciences Group at Microsoft, and Darren Leigh, technology researcher and innovator, received the award at the 25th ACM UIST Symposium held earlier this week in Cambridge, MA.
UIST is the premier forum for innovations in the software and technology of human-computer interfaces. UIST's Lasting Impact Award honors a paper from at least 10 years ago that has stood the test of time and had a strong positive impact on the field of user interface software and technology. Previous winners of the UIST Lasting Impact Award include works from Hiroshi Ishii, Bill Buxton, and Randy Pausch.
Regarding the award selection process, Rob Miller, Associate Professor at MIT and 2012 UIST Conference Chair commented, “The DiamondTouch paper by Paul Dietz and Darren Leigh was a clear standout. It was ground-breaking work in multi-touch, multi-user input technology, and it paved the way for enormous subsequent research and commercialization of multi-touch gestures, tabletop interfaces, and multi-user collaboration.”
First developed at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, DiamondTouch is now a product manufactured and sold by Circle Twelve Inc.
Adam Bogue, President of Circle Twelve commented, “The key differentiator in our products today is ‘multi-user’ or knowing who is who, and that is the innovation first described by Dietz and Leigh at UIST 2001.” The DiamondTouch product is a tabletop touchscreen computer display that supports small group, face-to-face collaboration and is used for brain-storming and decision making by engineering design, planning, mapping, and medical professionals. Bogue added, “I am happy for Paul and Darren and thrilled that DiamondTouch has been honored by the research community with this award.”
About Circle Twelve: Circle Twelve Inc is a privately-held company founded in 2008 and focused on helping people work together. Circle Twelve makes and sells multi-user computer hardware and software products to support small group collaboration. Additional information is available at www.circletwelve.com.
About the DiamondTouch Table: DiamondTouch is a patented multi-touch technology that has the unique capability of identifying who is touching where. The DiamondTouch table allows a group of people to sit face-to-face and work together on a shared screen, supporting standard PC software with multi-touch gestures instead of mouse and keyboard. Additional information is available at www.circletwelve.com/products/diamondtouch.html. DiamondTouch is a trademark of Circle Twelve Inc.